Subtle Differences
by Razzi Zadhna
Summary: Homucifer "accidentally" collides a universe where the Madoka cast are boys with the canon Madoka universe. Now we've got a genderswapped Madoka cast running around, the everyone's memories are coming back, and Homucifer is plotting with her own counterpart, Akiyoshi...oh dear. Takes place after Rebellion. OCs (M & F), no romance at all.
1. Chapter 1

Wow, seriously what the fuck is this.

This is an old-ass idea in my mind that I'm just barely working on now. I honestly have zero idea where this will go, but I'll just say that this fic stays more upbeat than depressing.

So uh yeah. Basic outline, slightly expanded from the main description: Homucifer gets bored, checks out alternate universes with her FABULOUS powers, and ends up slamming two universes together. Now we get genderswapped versions of the Madoka cast (Along with Hitomi and Nagisa) running around. Oh and Madoka gets her memories back, and now everyone's trying to stop Homura from doing dumb shit again. Then things get...nuts, for lack of a better term.

This fic was hard to plan for (before I went "FUCK PLANNING" and just charged ahead. Madoka's timeline is so compact and stuffed in there that finding a place to start from is REALLY hard.

There is no romance in this. There are also OCs _beyond_ the genderswapped cast. Actually, the cast gets kind of big later on, assuming I _get_ that far.

Please tell me if I'm going OOC with some of the female cast. I'm trying to make the males be like the girls but in subtly different ways.

/

Chapter 1: You, Meet Yourself

Marui Kaname lived peacefully, if homelessly, on a small dirt patch on an abandoned plot of Mitakihara land.

Madoka Kaname also lived on this plot of land, except it was a bustling and well-populated neighborhood.

Both were completely unaware of each other's existence, however, as they occupied different universes.

Then Homucifer fucked _everything_ up.

/

Madoka Kaname lived a peaceful life. She was mildly perturbed by the black-haired girl who had spent far too much time trying to get close to her for no discernible reason, but besides that, her acclimation to Japan was rather easy and quick. It had been about 2 weeks after she had come back from America, and she was fitting in rather nicely. Sure, old man Ōbayashi sometimes acted she was permanently tainted by _gaijin_ but no one liked him anyway.

It was Sunday, and thus a day of relaxation. She didn't have any homework, having finished it the day before, and thus she quickly went downstairs, not even changing from her yellow pajamas, to watch some TV. Her house was incredibly nice and well-furnished, almost completely made out of glass and making a striking image, one helped by her dad, who was busy snipping away at his garden. She waved to him as she walked to the living room.

Her mother would most certainly be drunk off her ass in the kitchen and her brother would be playing idly in his room, so the TV was free. She plopped down, her pink hair lightly flying through the air, and proceeded to watch about an hour's worth of television. Thankfully, they were running some re-runs of old Precure series-she always had loved them, as if they spoke to an inner part of her soul...maybe that was a sign, but she wasn't sure. For whatever reason, Precure and other Mahoushoujo series made her feel nostalgic, but not for her childhood, for something else...

About an hour into the show, her cell phone started buzzing. It was her friend, Sayaka Miki. A little miffed (though she did not let her anger show one bit in her tone), she answered. "Hello? Sayaka?"

"Hey, Madoka!" Sayaka's exuberance radiated out even through a phone. "Ha, just callin' to see if you're gonna hang out with me and Kyouko? We're thinking of hitting the mall, maybe to the arcade."

"Ah, sure, I'll come with you. You've been getting along well ever since she moved in..."

"Of course! Kyouko's a crazy girl, all right, but at least she's honest, I guess. Shame about her family, though..."

"Well, I want to get to know her a little better, so I'll come!"

"Eh!? Not for _me_?" Sayaka pouted jocularly.

"Oh, I'm...yeah, I'm coming for you too! You're my friend! Let me get ready, I'll meet you there in about an hour..." She hung up and put the phone back in her pocket, sighing. "Sayaka...you're just so full of energy...I like that, though." Smiling, Madoka got up, switching the TV off, and proceeded upstairs to change into slightly more fitting clothes for going outside.

At her door, she thought out loud while opening it-"What should I wear today-"

When she opened it, she found a young boy with pink hair lying on her bed, groggily getting up.

/

Too stunned to do anything, Madoka simply stared, slack-jawed, at the intruder. Her first thoughts were "He's kind of cute" and "WHY IS HE IN MY BED". She watched him slowly get up-he seemed much like her in far too many ways to be comfortable. He yawned a little, showing off his body as he stretched-like her, he was rather short and scrawny and not exactly a manly man. His hair was cut short; in many ways, he resembled a hypothetical Madoka if she had been a man.

As he rose, he finally opened his eyes. "Where am I?" He looked around, slightly bewildered, until his eyes met Madoka's.

They locked in a long, but not at all romantic, way.

"WHY ARE YOU IN MY ROOM!?

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU!?"

Both then realized that they had screamed incredibly loud and instinctively covered their mouths. Downstairs, Madoka's mom, Junko, could be heard. "Um, Madoka? What's wrong?" Rhythmic footsteps could be heard on the long wooden staircase.

"Uh-oh, mom's coming up..." Madoka, incredibly flustered, pointed at the youth. You! Hide underneath my covers!"

"What?" He looked slightly confused and bewildered himself.

"JUST DO IT!"

The boy quickly followed her orders and stuffed himself underneath the pink, fluffy covers. _Feels kind of good..._He then quickly laid as still as possible. Madoka herself then proceeded to make herself seem as normal as possible as the _thump...thump...thump_ of Junko came closer, until she had finally reached the door.

"Madoka?" She opened it, her face slightly red from a critical overdose of alcohol. "What was that yelling?"

Madoka was at a loss for words, her glance quickly jumping back and forth to the bed. The boy was doing a good job of not standing out, though. "Um, nothing, mom..."

"What's going on?" Junko forced her way into the room. "You have a boy in here?"

"Not...not at all! You've got everything all wrong!" Madoka was acutely aware that her actions were only making Junko more suspicious.

"Hm..." Junko prowled around the room like a cat stalking its prey, except stumbling from drunkenness. She nearly knocked over all of Madoka's work which had been quietly lying on her desk in her daze. When she went near the bed, Madoka thought that she was done, covering her eyes with her hands, but Junko failed to notice in her drunkenness and left the room, stumbling. "Honestly, what _was_ that screaming for...? You got lucky this time, Madoka. Tell your boyfriend to leave quickly."

Madoka waited until she was sure that Junko's footsteps. _I'm never going to hear the end of this..._ Sighing, she turned back to the bed. "She's gone, now." she called out to the boy quietly.

"You sure about that?"

"Yes, now get up and tell me who the hell you are!"

The boy rose from the sheets, flinging them away, before getting up and dusting himself off. He looked like he was practically homeless, wearing an old and ratty T-shirt with some holes in it. His jeans weren't much better off. His hair, despite being so short, was slightly messy and had a dull color to it, much unlike Madoka's bright and radiant locks. "I'm Marui Kaname "

"Kana...me?" Madoka SHAFT-tilted her head in confusion. "But that's impossible. Unless you're some relative I don't know, you can't be a Kaname!

The boy looked confused and SHAFT-head-tilted in return. "What?"

"_I'm_ Madoka Kaname. How can you have the exact same family name as me? And you look like me, plus our names both mean 'round'...?"

"You're taking this awfully well. I would have assumed that you would still think I was coming to kill you or something."

"I can just tell when people are nice, I guess." Madoka beamed brightly.

Marui was taken aback-she seemed so messianic...she reminded him of himself...what was it about her? Not merely looks, not merely family name, but something _deeper_. Almost as if she _was _him, from another world, or even universe. He could not tell, but Madoka felt the same way about him. They spent several awkward seconds observing each other.

"...Anyway, I want to know what exactly has happened here. I remember this place being an abandoned plot of land...not a full-fledged house." He took a few glances out of the window. "Yeah. None of this was here..."

Marui bit his lip. "Perhaps...no, there's no way, Kyubey said it wasn't possible, unless Akiyoshi...oh man, I gotta see if Yoshiki and Ringo are here too!"

/

_Sayaka and Kyouko's Apartment ..._

Meanwhile, Sayaka and Kyouko had their own problems to deal with. Mainly, the two boys who had somehow managed to show up out of nowhere.

"You better have some good answers for what exactly is going on here!" Kyouko kicked the red-haired boy on the ground with such force he nearly fainted.

"Ugh...oh god...can barely breathe..." Another kicked roused him. "I swear...I don't know. But I live here dammit!" He groggily rose to the ground only to be slammed by Kyouko in the jaw. "I live here with Yoshiki!"

Sayaka, standing next to Kyouko, shrugged. "You're crazy then. Me and Kyouko live here."

"Unless I somehow managed to enter an alternate universe...that's bullshit!" The red-haired youth rose even quicker this time and threw a swift hook at Kyouko. She dodged it and grabbed his arm, smiling deviously as she twisted it until he pulled back. He looked like crap, but that was mostly from Kyouko's immense beating. He resembled her greatly in looks. He was a little taller and skinnier, sure, but otherwise they seemed like brother and sister. They even preferred to keep their hair tied up. "You're...damn good..." He pulled out a small box of pocky. "Want some? I give it to people who beat me."

Kyouko was slightly taken aback. "You and me...we seem to share far more than you'd expect." She smiled and took the pocky, stuffing one in her mouth. "...But you're still a creepy-ass intruder!" She lunged forward for another attack, but her efforts were stopped by the _other_ boy on the ground, who grabbed her ankle. Unable to respond, she tripped into the red-haired boy, sending both of them to the ground with a crash

The other boy chuckled. "Dammit, Ringo...what the hell did you do this time?" He had blue hair and was to Sayaka as Ringo was to Kyouko-similar overall looks, and build. For him and Sayaka, though, the similarities were even more acute. "Now, as my friend_ tried_ to say, we supposedly live here." He pulled a small ring from his pocket and put it on his finger. "Now-"

When she saw the ring, Sayaka's eyes went wide. It was very simple, being nothing more than a circular band of metal-but it perfectly resembled her own ring.

The ring that was, in reality, her own Soul Gem. The proof that she was a Magical Girl.

"Are you...impossible...you can't be a Magical Girl!"

The air in the room was immediately stopped. Kyouko turned back to her stunned roomate, rather surprised herself. Her face was incredulous as her gaze flew from Yoshiki and Sayaka. "You sayin' he's a Magical Girl? That's damn impossible."

"I'm not a Magical Girl. Such a thing doesn't even exist." Yoshiki tapped the ring once-it shone blue and shifted like a blob of amorphous matter, into a small Soul Gem, shaped like a sapphire, mostly blue but with red bands of an unknown metal lining it like a cage. "I'm a Magical Boy, yes."

Kyouko rose, ignoring Ringo, and quickly walked over to him, grabbing the Gem. "But...that's impossible. Magical Boys don't exist. Only Girls." She summoned her own Gem rather hastily and grabbed Yoshiki by the shoulder. "You shittin' me?"

"Not in the slightest-get off of me!" He pushed her away but her grip was strong enough to stay strong. "Damn, you're strong..."

Ringo finally managed to make himself relevant again by getting up, albeit slowly. "Hey, get off my damn friend!" Gripping her shoulder, he wrenched Kyouko off of Yoshiki with intense force. Her grip was so hard that Yoshiki was dragged along with her.

Kyouko, not one for being spun around. immediately responded with the punch of a delinquent, simultaneously deadly yet unrefined. It hit Ringo square in the jaw, but he barely responded to it.

"Oh, little girlie here thinks she's a bancho!" He assumed a fighting stance of a delinquent himself, and beckoned her on with a cocky gleam in his eye.

The scarlet-haired girl smirked at his enthusiasm. "Oh, not really, but they can teach you a thing or two!" She went in for another punch, this time aimed at the gut. Ringo blocked it with his hand went in for a right hook with unparalleled viciousness. He hit Kyouko square in the side of her head, but she grinned, ignoring the ringing pain in her ear and smacked his shin with her foot. Recoiling from the impact, Ringo stumbled back, his leg firing up in pain.

"Ah...damn, you're strong for being so small..." He tried to remain aloof, but he couldn't help but grimace at the pain.

Yoshiki grabbed Sayaka by the shoulder and pulled her closer. A little shocked, she instinctively pushed him away "Don't touch me!"

"Sorry." He pulled away as Kyouko and Ringo went at it once more. "It's just...Ringo gets violent when he's focused, and I don't want you to get hurt. You're just a bystander." He returned his attention to his friend. "Ringo! Stop!"

Ringo ended a punch that was just about to hit Kyouko and looked over to his friend. Both he and Kyouko were starting to bleed a little. "Oh come on, I wanna show this girl who's boss!"

"Who cares about that!?" Yoshiki angrily stomped over to Ringo and smashed him straight in the gut. Ringo collapsed almost immediately to the ground in pain, clutching his stomach. Yoshiki turned back to the two girls.

"I'm Yoshiki Miki. He's Ringo Sakura."

Sayaka and Kyouko's eyes grew wide at this statement. Sayaka spoke first. "Impossible. You can't have the same last names as us! And look like us! And you remind us of...well, us too much!"

"Let's...sit down."

Somehow, the four of them found themselves sitting near the massive glass wall of Sayaka's apartment. They had a gorgeous view of Mitakihara and its ultramodern skyline that seemed to stretch for miles. The sun was shining brightly, fully illuminating the calm blues and whites of the city. They were sitting around a glass table. A steaming teapot, a few pieces of blank paper, and a blank pen were lying on it.

Kyouko and Ringo were staring daggers at each other, a low sort of rumble emitting from each other's throat, but for the most part, tensions seemed somewhat cooled down. They weren't attacking each other in the very least.

Kyouko was the first to speak. "Okay, so let's go over the weird stuff first. You-" She pointed an accusatory finger at Yoshiki, who grimaced back in return. Kyouko didn't apologize, though, as she continued. "Your given name..." She pushed the paper to him. "Write it. In kanji."

Yoshiki gave her an annoyed stare, but wrote the name down anyway. His lines were sharp and rough, and his hand was shaking with indignation.

美樹

He placed the pen down calmly. Kyouko then hastily pushed the paper to Sayaka. "Write down your family name in kanji too." Sayaka took the pen and quickly wrote the kanji. Her lines were less rough.

美樹

The eyes of all four widened. The kanji were exactly the same.

Sayaka grimaced. "Of all the...the kanji 美樹 can be read in names as both 'Miki' and 'Yoshiki'...out of all the ways to write 'Yoshiki', your parents chose that one!? That's too damn weird!" She pointed the pen dead-on at Yoshiki.

"It's strange, I know." He said in response, grabbing the pen and forcing her hand down. "Sorry, don't like people to point at me..."

Kyouko, unsure of what to do, grabbed the teapot and poured herself a cup. Ringo proceeded to do the exact same thing. Both of them glared at each other as they blew over their cups, observing each other in the steam. Then they both sipped (more "gulped") at exactly the same time. Both recoiled in response, starting to become slightly worried about their similarities.

After a few terse seconds, Kyouko spoke up. "...How about your name?"

Ringo put his cup down and smirked. "Not much. It's just short for 'Ringomoto' [AN: roughly "near the apple (trees)]. You're Kyouko [AN: 'apricot'], right?" He stopped for a second to lean in close and smugly smirk. "Funny how our names both have something to do with fruit, huh?"

Kyouko pushed him away forcefully and spat in disgust. "It's not funny, you goddamn idiot. This name stuff is starting to drive me crazy. Sorry, Madoka, you'll have to wait..." She reached throughout her sweater and pulled out another stick of Pocky. "Alright, let's get to the point. Explain this 'Magical Boy' stuff."

Yoshiki responded first. "Well, it's...I guess it's weird to explain. This..._thing_ called Kyubey comes up, right?" Both girls nodded, their faces growing grimmer with scowls. "And he lets us have one wish-and in return for that wish, we get powers and have to fight these beings called Wraiths."

"That's almost a dead ringer for our system here...except we fight." Kyouko impatiently reached into her sweater and pulled out an apple before chomping down on it with a resounding crunch.

Said crunch reverberated throughout the air-everyone remained silent.

"That doesn't make any sense-it's like you two bastards are from some alternate universes or something!"

Yoshiki's eyes went wide open. "You might have an idea...that actually makes a lot of sense! Quick, do you know a girl with pink hair?"

"Uh...yeah. Madoka Kaname."

Yoshiki and Ringo both glared at each other, their worried faces betraying their emotions. The blue-haired boy frowned and glanced back at the two girls. "Then she should know a guy named Marui. Do you also know a blond-haired girl, and one with black-" he stopped at that last one. "Let's not open those wounds."

"A blond-haired girl...? Mami Tomoe?"

/

"You still have explained very little."

"I have explained enough to inform you. You're stubborn. Like me, I guess."

"You have barely told me anything."

"Can I still stay here?"

"Of course not!"

Mami Tomoe had a rather annoying situation on her hands. She had merely been enjoying a nice tea in her apartment when an unknown boy had unceremoniously "popped" into existence in her room. He had called himself "Hakyou Tomoe", and while the fact that they shared family names was enough to perturb her, the fact that the name "Hakyou" had the kanji for "Tomoe" in it was enough to make her believe that she was being led on.

But the boy was rather insistent, and she had to admit, that the two seemed to share a certain resemblance beyond family name and blond hair. For one, Hakyou was just as dignified and elegant as she was, and he exuded a presence that even Mami found compelling. Of course, her own charisma stopped her, and the two could feel their respective magnetism constantly conflicting. Like repelled like, and it was no different for those two.

Was this what happened when an unstoppable force met an immovable object?

"Why can't I?" Hakyou asked, rather annoyed, stroking his golden hair with a masturbatory self-centeredness. "I just need to stay and find my friends and figure out what nonsense is going on."

"Because how can I trust someone like you?" Mami replied after sipping a cup of steaming tea. She brought it to her eyes and studied his visage in the steam. "You just showed up out of nowhere and start acting like you rule the place."

"In my eyes, it was YOU who came from nowhere. If I'm right, I somehow got transferred into an alternate universe, hopefully with my friends."

"That's positively insane."

"What _other_ option do we have? In my universe, this place is my house. It looks completely different." Hakyou looked around at Mami's apartment. He was particularly impressed at how clean it was...compared to his. "You have good decoration skills."

"Alright, assuming your strange explanation is correct...then _who_ exactly are you?" Mami took another sip of tea, running her cup dry. "I'm going to get some more tea." She said while rising to her feet.

"What else could I be?"

Hakyou looked off into the distance.

"I'm you from another universe."

Mami could only think of how she had enough trouble with Nagisa. _Don't tell me there'll be a male Nagisa as well..._

/

_Somewhere in Mitakihara city, high up in the skyscrapers..._

"So you call yourself Homura Akemi?"

"And you call yourself Akiyoshi Akemi."

"This is exactly why one shouldn't play with universes too much. Where did that power come from anyway? I worry that some of our closest acquaintances are...gaining their memories back."

"This? I...I gained this power to save the girl I love, Madoka Kaname."

"Funny. I became a Demon much like you are a Devil, Homura...to save the man I love, Marui Kaname."

"I have a feeling...that you and I have much in common, Akiyoshi."

/

I'm not sure about this. This first chapter is a little uneven in parts, but I'm going to assume that's just me worrying.

Oh well, the crazy shit will start happening in the next chapter. This fic is gonna ping-pong from wacky and crazy to serious, I swear, I cannot make my mind up.

I highly suggest you look up an artist named "Kurono Yuu" on Danbooru (put "kurono_yuu genderswap" in the search bar). They make a lot of genderswap Madoka fanart, and many of their designs were inspirations for the genderswapped Magica Quartet:

Hakyou: . /posts/909772

Ringo: .us/posts/908792

Marui: .us/posts/1163800

Akiyoshi and Yoshiki, however, are more from this incredible picture: .us/posts/899916

(Speaking of, I'm not the only one who would play a Madoka otoge like that, right? Seriously? Hottest. Idea. EVER. Bromura all the way every day)


	2. Chapter 2: All These Memories

Wow, I'm actually continuing this thing.

Keeping everything in track is hellishly difficult, I introduced 4 different groups (Madoka/Marui, Kyouko/Sayaka/Ringo/Yoshiki, Mami/Hakyou, and Homura/Akiyoshi) last chapter and making sure that everything lines up can be hell. But I persevere on!

Chapter 2: All These Memories

Madoka and Marui had spent the last few hours trying to get a grasp on things. Marui had left the house and stayed in a nearby park underneath a tree, to prevent arousing any suspicions from Madoka's parents. Madoka herself had abandoned plans with Sayaka, rather reluctantly, and left for there. The day was perfect, with a bright blue sky and the sun faithfully hanging overhead, bathing the area in warm rays. Many people were playing with family, friends, or pets, but he managed to find a quiet place near the river.

As she walked to where he was, various indescribable feelings came through her brain. They had nothing to do with Marui, but...something else. She thought about her past.

She had been born in Japan, and lived a normal life until three years ago, at which point her family had moved to America for business reasons, where she had lived until about two weeks ago.

Except that...didn't make sense. For whatever reason, despite the fact that when she probed her mind it returned the above result, it felt "fake". "Hollow". She could barely remember being in America. She had a good command of English, but she couldn't remember anything about the _place_ she had been in. Indeed, everything before about two weeks was rather fuzzy, a fact which she had at first attributed to simply being overwhelmed by the feeling of finally returning to Japan, but by now she should've felt better...

"This is so strange...my head, ow." She gripped her now throbbing forehead and breathed in slowly. "I should go see a doctor."

It felt as if there was some kind of lock on her head, like someone was holding something hostage in there. But, of course, that made no sense, so she abandoned that hypothetical quickly. Then her mind flashed back to _that_ scene; when she had come back, and Homura, that weird black-haired girl in her class, had offered to take her to the nurse, and then just started acting incredibly bizarre. Funnily enough, she could only remember _that_ event fuzzily as well, but she had remembered Homura grabbing her and saying "this is who you really are" in a desperate tone, like she was trying to prevent something from happening.

She had avoided Homura afterwards the encounter. She only needed one of those to not like them. But _then_ she felt like she knew Homura, more deeply than that...like she had seen her before.

Annoyed at her mind's bizarre journeys, she slapped herself a few times to get a grip. "I need to stop thinking about such weird stuff." At that point she saw Marui sitting underneath the tree. He looked like he was sleeping, his head thrown back and eyes closed. "Marui!" She ran over to him and called out again. This time he slowly roused, his eyes a little glazed over. "What...Madoka? He looked over and met eyes with her. "Oh, hi!" He bounced up energetically and stretched. "Sorry, I just got a little sleep there...this has been a pretty hectic day."

"Yeah...it has." Madoka sat down beside him. The river, full of clear sparkling water, was a pretty nice sight. Had they been lovers, she felt, it would have been a rather romantic moment. "But none of this makes sense."

Marui leaned back against the rough bark of the tree and and looked towards the sky wistfully. "Yeah, unless it's what I think it is."

Visions flashed through his mind.

Kyubey.

Meeting Hakyou.

Hakyou being brutally decapitated by that Warlock.

Ringomoto.

Yoshiki contracting, and his fight with Ringo.

All of them discovering the real truth behind Magical Boys.

Yoshiki being driven into despair and going Warlock.

Ringo sacrificing himself for reasons that still mystified Marui to this day.

Walpurgis Night.

Akiyoshi revealing the truth behind everything.

And finally, that one wish Marui had made. To turn himself from a person to a sheer law of the universe, to save Magical Boys in all of history from becoming Warlocks...until Akiyoshi, so turned mad by love, tore him from his position.

Marui observed the girl next to him. If she was, as he suspected, him but a girl, then clearly she had to have gone through the same things. The same pain. The same victory. And the same defeat by the person who had motivated her to make her wish in the first place.

But why did she seem to know nothing? If she had really been like that, surely she would have entertained the idea of him being her, and said something. Or maybe she wasn't.

Then he thought about his own memories. They had been blocked by Akiyoshi, yet the day before being thrust into this universe, they had suddenly re-appeared, as if Akiyoshi had been so preoccupied with something as to forgot about keeping them locked. Perhaps it was because this wasn't "his" universe.

_Perhaps she is the same way...what if I manage to evoke those memories again?_

He thought long and hard, his face scrunched up in contemplation. Something...something so emotional that it would shock her back to cognizance. He searched and searched, and just when he thought he could find nothing, words flashed in his head. "I've finally caught you". The words Akiyoshi had said to Marui just as he want about to free him of the burden of being a Magical Boy. That moment still tore at him. It was the one time that he had been unable to do anything, despite his wish. The one situation he was unable to foresee, despite his gift of ultimate omniscience. He smiled ironically at his failure, his face held low in shame. Outsmarted by a single human driven that mad with passion...

Akiyoshi had been his friend. It was seeing the pain that that raven-haired boy had gone through, that compelled Marui to make that single wish to become the Law of Cycles. And to have just disrespected his wishes like that...tears wanted to fall from his eyes, but he held them back. Whoever Akiyoshi's female counterpart was...he wondered who she was to Madoka.

He prayed silently that this would work, and laid his hand on Madoka's. If he wanted to shock her back to cognizance, he felt, he had to recreate the situation as much as possible. Madoka jumped slightly with a meep when Marui touched her hand, but didn't recoil from it, only looking at him with large, confused eyes.

Marui grabbed the other hand and brought them up, exactly as Akiyoshi had held them.

"I've finally caught you."

Madoka blankly stared into his eyes for a few seconds. "What...?"

Then it finally hit. A "sound" not unlike shackles being shattered, except not acoustic, but _mental_, indescribable by any human words. All of a sudden, the very air around Madoka seemed to be coalescing, throwing a shocked Marui back several feet, where he landed with a painful thud. He quickly stood up and tried to run to Madoka, but the winds kept him back. They raged louder and louder until they reached a deafening roar, yet no one else in the park seemed to notice. It was as if this was something happening on a level above normal humans. Marui held up his hands to his face instinctively, despite the winds being completely incorporeal.

Madoka simply stood in the middle of them until they composed a whirling vortex so strong it should've torn the dirt from the ground and ripped up the brick pathways of the river to pieces, but nothing seemed to be affected. The sound was so deafening that Marui cupped his ears and could still hear the sound lashing his eardrums to pieces.

Then, without warning in the slightest, they were transported to a new area. Marui recognized it-it was the very place where both he and Madoka, after their wish, had existed. It looked as if they were in space, standing on nothing, around an indescribable amount of galaxies and stars. "What the hell...Madoka! MADOKA!" He called out to her, somehow able to speak over the roaring winds.

Madoka finally began to speak, her eyes completely glazed over and golden. "Marui...my memories...they're all...coming back..."

In her mind flashed visions.

Kyubey.

Meeting Mami.

Mami being brutally decapitated by that Witch

Kyouko.

Sayaka contracting, and her fight with Kyouko.

All of them discovering the real truth behind Magical Girls.

Sayaka being driven into despair and going Witch.

Kyouko sacrificing herself for reasons that still mystified Madoka to this day.

Walpurgis Night.

Homura revealing the truth behind everything.

And finally, that one wish Madoka had made. To turn herself from a person to a sheer law of the universe, to save Magical Girls in all of history from becoming Witches...until Homura, so turned mad by love, tore her from her position.

All of these memories flooded her once more.

The winds died down as they came into her, her eyes trembling from the sheer mental overlord. Marui bolted over to her and held her as she collapsed. "Madoka! Are you okay?!"

"I'm...fine...it's just the memories...strong..." Madoka slowly rose to her feet.

Slowly the area faded, darkening and "melting" back to the park. No one else had noticed the events. Everyone else was going along their business.

Marui and Madoka were back at the tree. Both of them panted and gasped for air like they were about to faint. With reluctance, their eyes slowly met.

"Marui...my memories, Homura..."

"So you are just like me in the end..."

"This is..." Madoka's face distorted into a grimace of...anger? Even Marui, having barely known her for less than a few hours, felt like such a face didn't fit Madoka. Perhaps she had noticed that as well, as it quickly mellowed into a sullen face of disappointment. "I have to go to Homura..."

"That wont be necessary."

Madoka and Marui jumped from the voice, nearly knocking each other over. Homura was walking down the riverbank, dressed in her school uniform, fitting in without the slightest problem. But she had a "friend" alongside her. Much like her in looks, it was a man-one who Marui instantly recognized as Akiyoshi. In appearance he almost completely matched her, but taller and with broader shoulders. Nonetheless, he had a very effeminate appearance and like Homura, had on a face of both having gone through great tribulations. Unlike his counterpart, Akiyoshi was wearing a blazer as dark as night. It looked like the traditional Mitakihara school uniform, but completely black. When he saw Marui, he scowled in disgust and motioned towards Homura. "That's him."

Homura nodded. "I see. I can see the similarities to Madoka quite easily..."

Marui was the first to take action, walking very carefully up to the two. "So you're Homura. You sure resemble Akiyoshi quite a bit."

Homura smirked, smugly reveling in her power. She could tear that boy to shreds in an instant. She almost wanted to, worried, or more "annoyed", of the idea that Marui could take her Madoka. But she held back, knowing that causing a scene in such a place like this would be more trouble than it would be worth. "What have you been doing to my Madoka? Don't tell me you've been planting insane ideas in her head."

Before Marui could respond, Madoka quickly bolted to his side, grimacing in subtle rage. "'My Madoka'...Homura, what's wrong with you?!" That look of disappointment again. Madoka didn't even care about causing a scene at this point. "After my wish, after all that I did for not just _you_, but for the magical girls of the world...how could you?"

Homura lurched backwards, her wide eyes open, like Madoka's words had actually physically impacted her. "What?!" Her voice was now enraged. No one around seemed to notice, as if she was cutting off their cognizance of the event. "How did you...your memories...?" Her eyes were twitching wide open, clearly having been caught off guard.

Marui stepped forward this time, knowing that he was confronting a person who could murder him in an instant. "It was me. Akiyoshi, much like you had for Madoka, put my memories on block. But in this world his block didn't apply, so I decided to try snapping Madoka back to her normal self." He smirked triumphantly. "Looks like it worked."

It was Akiyoshi's turn to be shocked. Unlike Homura, though, he simply stood his ground and stared daggers at his once-comrade. "You bastard..." His hand began to twitch in unholy rage as he brought it up, a small vortex of purple energy swirling around it like demonic clouds. "I _control_ you! I'll just get rid of those memories once more!" He sounded akin to a lover driven mad, thrusting his arm forwards and pointing straight at Marui-not just his physical self, his _soul_ itself. But right as he did so, a massive burst of light appeared from nowhere and blocked it. Everyone instinctively held their hands up to shield their eyes, but Homura and Akiyoshi abhorred it much more, crumpling over from the sheer wrath of the righteous light.

Except Madoka.

When it ended, it became obvious why: Madoka had blocked it, by unleashing her own magical girl power. The meek and short girl standing next to Marui had disappeared. In her place was a gorgeous, commanding, and awe-inspiring goddess clad in a white robe, clutching a lithe yet divine bow in her hand. Her sheer presence made all three of them slowly retreat from her with a near-religious reverence. Marui himself was stunned. _So she turned herself into a Goddess much like me_?

"I can't let you do that, Akiyoshi." Madoka was still the same girl underneath. She looked like she could forgive any wrong-doing, no matter how terrible it was. She held out a single gloved hand to the two raven-haired people standing before her. "My power is not fully come yet. I am my true self in appearance, not power. But even so, Homura, please, just tell me _why_."

Homura herself looked like a child who had just done something terrible in front of a parent. But she steeled herself internally, knowing that she had the power to fight Madoka. That thought echoed in her mind. She had told that blue-haired bitch, a few weeks ago, that she might become Madoka's enemy, but the reality of the situation still gripped every inch of her mind. For her love, was she really willing to do that? Was she really willing to make an enemy of the girl she had tried to save for so long?

One tiny part of her soul, still sane, said "stop this".

She ignored it. Her mouth twisting into a maniacal grin, she laughed madly as her right hand became enveloped in a unholy dance of violet "fire", the "flames" madly raging around her hand much like her own mind, until they died out, leaving behind a single soulgem-like object in her hand. It was not a soulgem-no, it was something much more potent; it did not hold Despair like a soulgem, it was _composed _of it alongside Love in a twisted tango. Homura gripped this in her hand, grinning madly at Madoka and her counterpart. "You see this, Madoka? It's the ultimate embodiment of what I did for you...there is no name for it, as it never existed before, but let's call it my "Dark Orb" for now. Don't worry, no one around us is aware of our little lovers' spat right now." She flipped the object into the air non-chalantly a few time, admiring its visage as it flew through the air. "With this, one could say I'm God of this universe. I made it just for the two of us..."

Madoka gritted her teeth at the sight of Homura's flippant actions. A feeling grew inside her, one she rarely knew...anger? Was it really anger or rage at what Homura had done? The ramifications of that girl's actions swirled through Madoka's head like a sea during a violent hurricane. She was not one to feel "angry". Madoka rarely made talk with it. That had always been a trait of hers, even when she had been a child. But this kind of transgression, this malfeasance...

Words rang through her head.

_I wish to erase all witches from existence before they're even born. Every witch in the universe, from the past and the future, with my own hands. _

That was her wish. After all those horrible events, that was the final wish she had made. Only she had had the power to make such a powerful imposition on the world.

But that last part, "with my own hands", had been important. _She_ wanted to be the one to greet the Magical Girls who had finally given in. _She_ wanted to be the one to provide hope to all Magical Girls at all times. She had given up her own body, her own sense of self, her own _metaphysical existence_, to do this.

And now Homura, the person who had motivated her to make said wish...had stripped her from the Law of Cycles.

As the anger swirled inside of her, it warped to sadness. An inconceivable sense of bittersweet disappointment and mourning came inside of her. Hurricanes always brought rain with them.

Tears began to slowly fall down from her eyes. "H-Homura..." The raven-haired girl stopped admiring her Dark Orb, taken aback by Madoka's now cracking and tearful voice. "After all the hardship we went through...after all the suffering _you_ went through...after I did everything in my power to save Magical Girls. You do _this_?"

Homura gingerly stepped forward, extending a caring hand out. "Madoka, I did this all for you-"

"**AKEMI HOMURA!**" Madoka roared with such rage that everyone else lurched back in shock. The tears continued to fall, but now Madoka was staring her straight in the face. "Homura, you're living in a delusion...this world may seem perfect, but all you're doing is dressing up a tragedy and calling it a comedy!"

"Madoka..." Homura could only gasp in horror at the sheer power ahead of her. Madoka may have been separated from her true divine self, but even then she commanded a presence that forced one to stare directly at her. Especially if one was a sinner. "How can you say that!? You had no sense of self, no identity, you weren't a human, YOU WERE A THING! A FORCE OF NATURE, NOT A REAL PERSON!" She screamed the words so loud her throat threatened to shear right then and there. Her own eyes were now drenched in tears streaming down her face. Both Akiyoshi and Marui stepped back, well aware that this was the girls' argument-but they both glanced a each other for a split-second, both knowing that the exact same argument could be happening between them.

"I was exactly what I had wanted to be! I _chose_ that fate, Homura!" Madoka couldn't stop the tears from flowing even harder, her voice weak and cracking from the sobs within. "I know I couldn't be with you...things aren't perfect...but I had put FAITH in you. I had FAITH that you would be the one person to remember me in this new world! But in the end, you tore it all down!?"

"I..." Homura could barely speak now, her throat too consumed with the sobs of despair to articulate. "...did it for you...to be with you..."

"So, in the end...you really only cared about what you wanted." Madoka wiped the tears from her eyes, letting them fall silently to the ground. No one said anything for a few seconds. The rushing water of the nearby river and the commotion of the people around them, utterly unaware of what was going on, were the only sounds around. Madoka summoned her wooden bow with a pink flash, and raised to Homura's eye. Both of them said nothing as she reached forward to nock an arrow made of pure pink magic. But she never fired it. Even though she was one twitch of a muscle away from sending an arrow straight through Homura's eye, she did nothing, and eventually lowered the bow down, the arrow still nocked, before firing it uselessly into the ground.

"...I am not strong enough to beat you yet, Homura. But I shall tell you this: when we meet again, we shall be enemies."

She had never wanted this.

One silent and invisible tear fell down from her eyes as she stared into those of who was once her best friend...and now her ultimate enemy.

/

Well, now the plot has gone into full-overdrive. Wow, a whole chapter only focusing on four people in cast of _ten_. And technically only two people. This was short but I feel making it any longer would mess with the pacing. Then again this chapter moves as lightning speed. Yet, I feel like it's at the right pace nonetheless. Eh, I'm just ranting at this point.

As you can see, I'm firmly in the "Homura fucked up BAD" camp when it comes to what happened in Rebellion.


	3. Chapter 3: By Any Other Name

Not to much to say, let's get the show rolling:

Chapter 3: By Any Other Name

"It's good to be back, huh?"  
"Not when we're stuck in some new world, it isn't."  
"It's all the same anyway."

Yoshiki and Ringo had managed to get away from Sayaka and Kyouko long enough to meet Hakyou. They were in some unknown part of Mitakihara. Unfortunately for them, the architecture and overall layout of the city was subtly different in this universe than theirs, and as such they found themselves getting lost in the city streets constantly.

"Hakyou, buy a damn map." Ringo impatiently barked at him when they got lost again, chomping on an apple.

"No, I don't need one." Hakyou impatiently barked back, grimacing in annoyance at his companion.

Yoshiki sighed. Around Marui, he was the boisterous and energetic type. But around Hakyou and Ringo, he found himself the voice of reason, a fact which sometimes scared him. "Do you two always have to fight every damn time we do something together?" He pulled out a small cellphone in his pocket. Sayaka had given him her number right before he and Ringo had left. Dialing it, he put the phone to his ear and impatiently waited through several rings, before Sayaka picked it up.

"_Hello?_"

"It's Yoshiki."

"_Lost, huh?_" She laughed so heartily that even Yoshiki had to feel at ease. "_I knew you'd get lost, if you really were like me. So you really are me from another dimension, huh? If I hadn't already been a magical girl, I'd be shocked right now._"

"Yeah..." Yoshiki grumbled at the blatant admittance of his and her air-headedness. "Just...we probably could use some help for where we are." He looked around while Ringo and Hakyou continued to bicker. They were somewhere deep within the city center, skyscrapers all around , casting deep and dark shadows all over the road. It was somewhat late, however, so there weren't many cars on the streets, and most of the people around were workers but citizens shopping and walking around. He looked for a few landmarks and relayed the information to Sayaka. "Let's see...we're, uh, on the street that has Matsuda and the train station that runs parallel to the river."

Sayaka "hmm'ed" for a few seconds before replying. "_Ah, you're near the mall...you might as well go there and me and Kyouko will meet you. Maybe we can get Mami too. Anyway, go left from there..."_ Sayaka gave him the directions, and at the end, said goodbye. Yoshiki put his phone away and turned his attention to the two bickering idiots in front of him. "Let's go, Sayaka wants us to hit the mall."

Hakyou and Ringo (who were about to punch each other in the face), stopped their argument at once. "Huh?" Hakyou replied first. "Why are we always following what these girls say? We should get to know the city better instead of always using them."

"We can do that when we have a map or _something_, but I don't want to aimlessly walk around here all day. We need to get going soon anyway, if we want to find Marui."

"Man, you hang around that guy all the time." Ringo sneered, biting into his apple once more. "You two are lovers, I swear." His voice was muffled from all the apple in his mouth.

Hakyou punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Would you not speak with that half-masticated apple rolling around in your wide open mouth? My word, I live around savages."

Ringo rolled his eyes and took another bite, finishing the apple whole. "Man, I hope Mami isn't as bad as you."

"Ringo," Yoshiki sternly interrupted, his voice sharp and vexed. "We were once enemies who wanted to kill each other...and we can become them once more."

"Man, you know that'll never happen." Ringo beamed and playfully tapped Yoshiki on the shoulder. "Not after all that...you becoming a Warlock and...yeah."

Yoshiki nodded. "Marui said that you gave your life when fighting me...why?"

"I don't know, honestly. I don't think I ever will know." Ringo's eyes narrowed as he remembered that traumatic incident. "Maybe it was because when you died...you were practically the only friend I had. Perhaps I just _broke_ then. But I remember that when I was fighting you...I wanted to make sure you weren't alone in the afterlife. Because this world is already fucked up enough. The underworld's probably worse."

Hakyou rolled his eyes mockingly at the two boys. "And you said Marui and Yoshiki were lovers."

"Shut up, idiot, you got your damn head bitten off."

"Oh _fuck_ you!"

/

The mall was a massive and beautiful complex that appeared to be made completely from glass, the sun's rays lighting up the interior brightly. Yet the mall was never too hot from all the sunshine, the windows perfectly designed to block just the right amount of heat. Mitakihara was truly a modern marvel, so high-tech and cutting edge that it felt like one stepped into a science fiction story when one walked throughout it.

The three boys had taken to a bench outside, in a nice secluded place. Few people were around, and the only thing of note was a small parking lot for about 10 cars, some bushes, and their bench.

"So is this where it began for all of you?"

Sayaka, Kyouko, and Mami had shown up in their school uniforms. They sat down across the boys on the brick wall of the bushes.

Yoshiki answered first. "Yeah...this is where it began. I was listening to some music when all of a sudden Marui disappeared. I saw him running out of the store and followed him." He shrugged. "I didn't know what the hell his problem was, but I kept following him upstairs to the roof-"

All of a sudden, he was interrupted by Mami. "The roof?" She asked, her head tilted in confusion. "For us, it was far down below the first floor in the parking garage."

Hakyou furrowed his eyebrows in interest. "It looks like our lives weren't _totally_ the same. Probably just random static."

"I don't think the differences really matter as long as the same thing happened in the end..." Kyouko nervously replied, pulling out a small can of soda and guzzling it down.

Yoshiki marveled at the can as she drunk it all down. "God dammit, Ringo, she never stops eating, just like you..." Then he returned his attention to telling the story, but someone walked past. Not wanting to sound like a nutcase, he waited until the person passed by. "Sorry, I just don't want to be hauled off to the crazyhouse...in any case, Marui got to the roof and there was that ittle cat...thing, all beat and bruised, but Akiyoshi-"

"I'm assuming that's Homura's counterpart?" Sayaka cut in.

"If she's got long black hair, time powers, uses guns, and is kinda of crazily in love with Marui's female counterpart, then yes. Anyway, Kyubey begged Marui to save him, Akiyoshi jumped onto the roof and wanted Marui to let him kill Kyubey. Then I came in with a fire extinguisher and blasted him-"

Sayaka abruptly lept up and punched the sky passionately when he mentioned that. "Heck _yeah_! Man, I still remember that!"

"It was pretty awesome, huh?" Yoshiki jumped up as well and mimed holding the extinguisher and blasting Akiyoshi, an excited smile on his face. "I just grabbed the closest thing I could find and blasted him..."

Yoshiki continued to relay the story. Besides the location, it appeared to have little differences from what Sayaka and Mami had gone through. At the end, he leaned back onto the glass of the mall. "And that's how this whole mess started..." Nobody said anything for several seconds, all contemplating on the things which resulted from those chance meetings. The air was silent, but also pensive, as they let those events come back into the forefront of their minds. But besides them, something appeared to be creeping...somewhere. They couldn't quite feel it, yet, but the a feeling of dread washed over them. They played it off as their minds reacting to the tragic events which defined their pasts.

Eventually, Hakyou was the first to speak. "You know...when I got into this, I had no idea that it would get this big." He stared wistfully into the sky. "All this craziness...we're probably special amongst Magical Girls and Boys. Most don't get to see the world rewritten _twice_ like this." Everyone nodded in response. The resulting silence hung rather awkwardly in the air. A feeling of unease, creeping up on them like a heavy mist sweeping the ground, soon began to build up.

There was little noise besides the rustling of leaves in the wind. The sun was beginning to come down, casting deep orange beauty onto the Earth.

Hakyou shifted around on the bench and then got up apprehensively, reaching into his pockets. "It doesn't feel right here, doesn't it? Let's just go into the mall." The others agree, and eventually split up into three groups of Sayaka/Yoshiki, Kyouko/Ringo, and Mami/Hakyou, the girls ensuring that the boys wouldn't get lost.

/

Mami and Hakyou had wandered through the waves of people chaotically filling up the mall for half an hour, mostly by Mami pointing out the various stores and Hakyou mentioned the subtle differences they had in his world.

"And over there's the Kinoyo store..."

"Ah, that was on the other side in my Mitakihara."

They eventually decided to visit a rather fancy tea store on one of the upper floors. It was a place Mami was rather familiar with, being one of the few places in Mitakihara that sold imported western teas. Hakyou recognized the place as they entered, the glass of the outside being replaced by soothing wood paneling. Soft lights coming from the ceiling helped to give the store a slow, contemplative mood. Rows upon rows of teas, some in bags, many loose, all arranged by country of orgin, were everywhere. The aroma of all these various leaves united into an indescribable, and indescribably exquisite fragrance that almost knocked one off of their feet with its intensity. The woman running the store bowed and greeted Mami personally when she entered, but reacted with confusion to Hakyou.

"Tomoe-san...who is he?" The slightly old woman, her hair starting to turn slightly gray, asked Mami.

Mami, realizing that she hadn't thought about this at all, stumbled over her words and nervously laughed. "Um, well...he's a relative. I'm showing him around." Hakyou gave her a confused look, but quickly nodded when she jabbed him painfully in the gut.

"Ah, I see. Well, I hope he enjoys tea much like you do."

"I quite do, ma'am." Hakyou bowed and grinned like a high-class aristocrat. "Why, you could say that Mami here got her love of tea from me-" He stopped as Mami inconspicuously stamped on his foot with intense conviction, the sharp pain flying up his leg nearly making him crumple over. Biting his lip to avoid showing signs of pain, he only gave her a nasty look as she led him to the European part of the store.

"I'm assuming we have similar tastes?"

Hakyou nodded. "I saw your collection in your apartment before you rather rudely threw me out. Highly similar to mine."

"Well then, you might as well grab the kind you know I would like." Mami said with a wink.

"Alright, then..." Hakyou scanned the rows for a few of his and Mami's particular favorites.

But right as he reached for one., a subtle feeling, something normal people wouldn't notice, almost imperceptible, yet paradoxically massive, rippled through the air. Or, more, it was that the _air_ itself rippled. The very fabric of space itself looked as if it had warped for a slight second, a dull ringing reverberating through the air-a ring that sounded muffled yet sharp, as if it had come from their location and yet hadn't come from it.

A Wraith.

But his blood did not turn to ice, like most people's would have. He knew these creatures, had fought them before. Without even saying a word, he turned back to Mami, who nodded, having felt the presence too. Both of their faces were grim.

"Just when you're having fun..." He grimaced. Not that he didn't enjoy fighting and saving people from them.

"It's our duty." Mami quietly replied, in order to not let the shopkeeper in on their conversation. "I hope you don't feel like you can shirk it."

Hakyou's face instantly went from a grimace to a cocky smile. "Heh, of course I don't. I wouldn't shirk it for anything in the world. Let's go find it."

They quickly left the store afterwards, the shopkeeper somewhat surprised that they hadn't bought anything. In the chaotic commotion of the mall, it seemed as if hearing anything would be impossible-but they weren't normal humans.

It could be argued that they weren't humans at all, indeed.

Hakyou reached into his pockets and pulled out a small, gleaming object, golden in the center and strung with bands of metal, inlaid with smaller golden gemstones-his soul gem. Flipping it into the air nonchalantly, he watched it twirl through the air, flipping end over end, and caught it with a single lightning-quick snap of his arm. Uncurling his hand, he observed its glow. The gem was pulsating weakly, barely lighting up. "It's not anywhere nearby...damn why don't these things come with a compass?" He called out to her.

"Yes," She replied, sticking close to him so he could hear. "But since we have two, it might be possible to figure out the basic direction if I go away from you and see if it gets stronger."

"That makes sense..."

Mami nodded and quickly ran several feet west from Hakyou, dodging waves of people chatting or walking through the mall. When she got far enough away, she checked her own soul gem, one with a highly similar design. It was glowing _slightly_ stronger than Hakyou's. Running back to him, she relayed the information. "Let's go west then."

The sun was blazing through the massive walls of the mall, lighting up the whole building grandly, sitting low and orange on the horizon.

"That wont be necessary."

All of a sudden, the entire area stopped. The throngs of people, the birds outside, the cars on the roads that could be seen through the walls did not merely stop-they froze, as if someone had just stopped time.

_Now_ it was time for Mami and Hakyou's blood to turn to ice.

They both knew only one person who could stop time at will.

Akiyoshi was behind them.

/

"The grand power that Homura has is stunning at times." He smirked as they turned around to face him, their faces grim. "Just look at how she was able to conceal my presence for this long."

"Akiyoshi, you fucking..." Hakyou wanted to punch him in the face so badly it took all of his willpower to keep his clenched fist from flying forward. "What kind of nonsense are you trying to pull _now_?"

"So this is Homura's counterpart..." Mami surveyed Akiyoshi with her eyes and quickly took a step back, nearly bumping into a time-frozen person. "I don't know much about Magical Boys, but you don't look transformed."

"He isn't." Hakyou quickly replied.

Not a single sound besides their voices could be heard.

"Mami Tomoe, huh?" Akiyoshi was the once to survey her this time. "I can see the resemblance...Homura told me about you."

"I can only hope what was said was good."

"Not really...like Hakyou you're really such an unstable person." Akiyoshi raised his hand to his neck and mimed slicing it open. The implication was clear. "Tying her up and then getting your head bit off? Reminds me of Hakyou and his idiocy resulting in his own head getting bit off. Our lives intersect in so many ways, don't they?" He was talking in an airy tone, as if he was some supreme being looking down on them. Like he didn't even care one bit for the opinions of someone so far below him.

Mami's eye twitched from the insults. That event still laid heavy in her mind. The way she had lost it...the way she had let her joy overcome her and destroy her. It tore into her at times. Especially knowing the truth behind the Magical Girl system. Was that simply the ironic end of her wish? "I don't see how I'm worse than a nutjob who does something as extreme as rewrite the universe to suit her own desires. We need to take care of the wraith, so get out of the way." Mami gripped her soul gem and quickly transformed with a flash of golden light. As soon as she was done, she pulled one of her ornately detailed muskets out and pointed it straight at Akiyoshi's face. His brow furrowed in response, admiring the detailed weapon, knowing that despite its antique-appearance, it was a deadly weapon that could tear him to pieces.

"You're not going to fire on me that quickly, are you?"

"I still remembering fighting Homura in her witch barrier. I'd say I won that one."

Akiyoshi didn't respond at first, simply letting Mami stare him down. But his muscles were prepared for the slightest action that could possibly escalate to a violent battle. He didn't need that. Not while Homura was testing her latest theory out. "...Heh, if you must know, I am the wraith. I should be a Warlock, but since this is a world with no other witches except Homura, it treats me like a wraith, as that's the closest equivalent."

Mami lowered her gun towards his foot. "Then maybe I'll destroy you."

Akiyoshi bit his lip in annoyance at the regal bitch in front of her. "If I wanted to fight someone, I'd the man I knew." He pointed one finger at Hakyou, who clutched his soul gem even harder, bleaching his knuckles white.

"Maybe we should just duke it out here." Hakyou smiled maniacally, beckoning Mami to step back

Mami refused to step back, however. She kept the gun focused on Akiyoshi. "If he's like Homura there's no way one of us could take him on. I'm just keeping him focused on one spot. Since he's already stopped time, he can't just dodge it with his ability. If he stops time to use it again, then everyone'll see the battle." She waved her arm around at all the frozen people surrounding them. "Now how about you leave, and we can deal with this later?"

Akyoshi shook his head emotionlessly, his purple eyes remaining locked onto Mami. "I've got to keep you busy for Homura."

"Just _what_ is she planning on doing?"

This prompted a smile from Akiyoshi that could only be described as horrifying. The smile of a madman about to bring his creation to life. Even before he spoke, Mami and Hakyou knew that something was horribly wrong..."

/

Homura was more than a witch.

In all honesty, she was a complete goddess. Her power was far greater than witches, and she had kept her own human form by internalizing her love and grief into a potent power.

Witches all kept familiars. Those bizzare cotton creatures of Gertrud, Charlotte's mottled spider-beings, Homura's own Clara Dolls...these were offshoots of the witch's power that manifested as guardians and beings. But inhuman beings, all the same. Even Homura's own Clara Dolls were merely humanoid.

A Devil much like herself deserved much more powerful familiars. Perhaps, even humans granted powers by her. She had little want for dirtying her own hands with the blood of those Magical Girls who would inevitably follow Madoka.

After, the Incubators granted wishes using the karmic power of the girls they scouted. Who said that Homura couldn't do that herself? Especially after she had already subjugated that awful creature, Kyubey, and tore his mind open to learn the secrets of the Incubators.

Understanding this, she grasped the phone in her hands, given to her by Akiyoshi, and dialed a number, punching every key in carefully.

It rang dully for several seconds. Then a click.

"_Hello? This is Shizuka Hitomi..._"

"Hello, Hitomi."

"Akemi-san? Why are you calling me from this odd number?" 

"I simply wanted to know...what is it that you wish for the most?"

Familiars were below Witches, who kept them as familiars. Devils were above Witches, and thus it was fitting that they keep _them_ as familiars.

And what were Witches also known as?

Magical Girls.


End file.
